Columns

January arrives each year with a sense of possibility. It’s the month of clean slates, ambitious resolutions and renewed motivation, especially when it comes to money. Advertisements urge us to “start fresh,” social media celebrates dramatic financial transformations and many people feel an unspoken pressure to fix everything at once. While the energy of a new year can be helpful, many of the ideas surrounding January money moves are rooted in myths. These misconceptions can lead to rushed decisions, unrealistic expectations and frustration when progress…

The flu season is currently at its peak in Massachusetts. It could last another three to four months. For those who have gotten the flu this winter, symptoms have included fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, headache, and muscle aches and pains, which can last up to two weeks. This year’s flu vaccine, though not a direct match for the flu strain, has helped reduce the severity of the flu and protected others from contracting it. Fortunately, you can still get vaccinated now to protect…

(This is the first in a series of columns from Defending Democracy in Marblehead exploring our town’s past and present as it has echoed and often rejected national politics, trends and values.) Nestled along the rocky North Shore of Massachusetts, our town possesses a character that has always been shaped by its people’s deep attachment to autonomy, self-governance and resistance to overweening authority. In terms of social justice, from colonial times through today, it has also engendered deep patterns of exclusion and complicity, as well…